It’s that time of year when anybody who so much as skirts the periphery of the Internet will be blindsided by a militia of totally unasked-for End Of Year roundups. But at least there’s one such list we actually look forward to: John Waters’ roundup of his top ten favorite films from the last twelve months.
Related: Let’s Celebrate John Waters’ Birthday With Some Of His Most Unforgettable Moments
His 2016 list for Artforum certainly doesn’t disappoint, as you can see below.
Let’s dive in:
1 KRISHA (Trey Edward Shults)
This hilariously harrowing portrait of a family reunion ruined by an alcoholic relative and too many dogs is told with verve and lunacy and features a top-notch performance by Krisha Fairchild, the director’s own aunt. Other people’s hell can sometimes be so much fun.
2 TICKLED (David Farrier and Dylan Reeve)
Hahahahaha! First you’ll chuckle watching this exceptional piece of investigative reporting, but then, once the shocking plot twists begin, you’ll choke on that laughter.
3 EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! (Richard Linklater)
4 ROAR (Noel Marshall)
I finally got to see Tippi Hedren’s real-life snuff movie starring her entire family that was made in 1981 but not released in the US until 2015. Watch, slack-jawed, as Tippi is scalped and her daughter Melanie Griffith mauled by the wild-animal extras who turn out to be the real stars of this nutcase action film.
5 WIENER-DOG (Todd Solondz)
The funniest dog movie since Godard’s Goodbye to Language. Nasty, blunt, rude, and full of hideous surprises.
6 ELLE (Paul Verhoeven)
Do daughters of mass murderers like to get raped? In France they sometimes do, and only Isabelle Huppert could play this hetero-deviant, Claude-Chabrol-meets-Radley-Metzger character with feminist dignity. Isn’t she the best actress in the whole wide world?
7 JULIETA (Pedro Almodóvar)
Pedro Almodóvarligncenter size-full wp-image-433472″ src=”https://queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com/content/docs/2016/12/02180850/julieta-almodovar-2016-pelicula-640×401.jpg” alt=”julieta-almodovar-2016-pelicula-640×401″ width=”640″ height=”401″ />8 LIKE CATTLE TOWARDS GLOW (Dennis Cooper and Zac Farley)
Arty teenage death, Gallic rimming, and a maddening passion for punk penises make this Eric Rohmer–like porno a real French tickler for the fucked-up literary set.
9 VALLEY OF LOVE (Guillaume Nicloux)
10 A QUIET PASSION (Terence Davies)
The grim curse of Emily Dickinson’s poetic talent has never been shown with such depressing clarity. If you can’t enjoy suffering along with her, you should be dead too.
Chris
What a sick, demented man! I think I’m in love…..
ErikO
Waters should concentrate more on making movies, even the boring conformist sell out movies he’s made since the early 80s than promoting Dennis Cooper. Some of these movies seem interesting and I will watch them.
ErikO
Nothing about the film Moonlight? I know Waters is [email protected] as this has been known about since the 70s with desperate living, and for sure during the early 80s with Polyester; but it’s not surprising that he loves movies about all white people, and he supports that icky pedo chicken hawk Dennis Cooper.
Daggerman
…Mr.Walters will always remain a true-life film maker, why, because he doesn’t pamper to the Normalcy of our society. He lets us see exactly what human beings can be like. As disgustingly silly and outrageously funny we are. All the piss-elegant idiots in society who need to wear rose tinted glasses.
Thad
ErikO, I thought that too! But it’s probably too mainstream for John Waters.